Army of Me
"Army of Me" is a song by Icelandic musician Björk for her second studio album, Post. It was released on 24 April 1995 by One Little Indian as the lead single from the album. The song was written and produced by Björk and Graham Massey, who helped her in producing and writing the majority of her album. Lyrically, the song was inspired by the damaging behavior of Björk's brother, and in the lyrics she tells him to stand up to regain control of his life. It was well received by music critics, who noted its darkness compared to her other material. "Army of Me" was a commercial success, being her first single to enter the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart.
Björk premiered the song on some gigs during the Debut tour before the release of the album. She performed it in a series of TV appearances, and notably, for the first time on Top of the Pops with Skunk Anansie. Additionally, the song was performed on every date of the Post tour. The song was featured on Björk's compilation album, Greatest Hits.
The song's accompanying music video was directed by frequent collaborator Michel Gondry. It features the singer driving an enormous vehicle through a city, fighting a gorilla dentist to get back a diamond he took from her mouth, and bombing a museum with dynamite to free a boy. In 2005, Björk released a UNICEF charity benefit compilation entitled Army of Me: Remixes and Covers, which featured a series of covers and remixes by artists from all over the world.
Background
"Army of Me" was written in 1992 by Björk and Graham Massey, during one of the first recording sessions for Debut, along with "The Modern Things", but Björk decided to put the songs on hold and to wait for releasing them. Even so, Björk performed the songs during some dates on her Debut tour. The singer further explained the song: "Imagine you're in a club full of heavy metal types and grunge people; 'Army of Me' is like someone's granny blasting out over the PA and saying, 'Snap out of it! Stop whining! Wash your hair! Smarten yourself up!The single was released in the United Kingdom on 24 April 1995 as a cassette and two-CD single. The first CD contained the Icelandic version of "You've Been Flirting Again" and the cave version of "Cover Me", both from Post. The cave version of "Cover Me" was recorded in a cave in Bahamas, and sounds of flying bats can be heard in the background. The single also contained "Sweet Intuition", a song composed by Björk and Black Dog, which would form the lyrical basis for the composition of another song written by Björk for Madonna: "Bedtime Story". The second CD contained, among other remixes, a version of "Army of Me" featuring Skunk Anansie. The track was recorded and mixed in less than seven hours, as recalled by the band, and features Björk screaming.
Composition
"Army of Me" is an aggressive industrial rock and trip hop song with elements of techno dominated by a heavy bassline in C Locrian. The song's drum part is sampled from Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks". Mim Udovitch has described the song as "grinding techno fusion".The lyrics of the song are about Björk's brother, as revealed by the singer, and show Björk daring him to move up and find a job to keep his life on, and also for him to not fall into bad things and learn to defend himself: "It's actually written to a relative of mine who had been a bit out of order for a while. I'm not sure why I wrote it. Maybe I felt that Debut had been such a polite, shy album – there was a side of me that was so shy and such a beginner, I was very flattered when everyone loved Debut but also a bit confused because it wasn't really me. Maybe 'Army Of Me' was an attempt to balance it out." In the chorus of the song she sings: "And if you complain once more/You'll meet an army of me!"
Critical reception
In a positive review, Heather Phares of AllMusic stated that "'Army of Me' casts Björk against type as a warrior goddess fed up with whining, instead of her usual cyber-pixie persona...the song's pounding industrial beat, menacing synth bass, and unusually aggressive lyrics stand in sharp contrast to the rest of the album and to most of her previous work." Eric Handerson of Slant Magazine found that the song "provocatively merges a Weather Report-esque jazz-fusion bass riff with a heavy-timbered rock drumbeat to match her contemptuous vocal delivery " Natalie Curtis described the song as "inelegant"; Mim Udovitch of Rolling Stone dubbed it "ominous, anthemic", with Lou Stathis of MTV calling it "booming, martial-march techno". According to Brantley Bardin of Details, 'Army of Me' is "the album’s straightest song, a manifesto about self-sufficiency", while for Liz Hoggard of The Observer, the track is "brutal yet tender". Stuart Maconie of Q magazine praised the song by stating that its lyrics carries "bold and refreshing sentiments for a rock song. Refreshingly Icelandic sentiments", and further stating that "'Army Of Me' not only sounds fabulous—Led Zeppelin and techno welded together into a surging, operatic whole—but possesses a briskly pull-yourself-together tone. Stand up, you’ve got to manage... /You're all right, there's nothing wrong /... get to work / and if you complain once more, you'll meet an army of me".Pan-European magazine Music & Media wrote, "Chased by an extremely dangerous synth baseline and drums, the Icelandic siren with the most peculiar vocal technique – even her breathing is special – accelerates whenever its necessary." In a separate review, 'Army of Me' was named "a perfect and credible first single, although less adapted to radio than 'Human Behaviour'." Music Week gave the song three out of five, saying that "the long-awaited return isn't quite the quirky pop we come to expect from the singer but a more brooding, darker affair". They added, "Expect healthy chart action." Bidisha from NME opined that "Bjork's quirk-by-numbers 'Army of Me' sounds like pretend music played on squeaky toy synthesisers." Another NME editor, Ted Kessler, wrote, "The song's main malaise is its lack of tune or colour, augmented by a vocal performance that feels flat and uncommitted. It's like the forlorn, sickly, weakling little sister of 'Human Behaviour', full of dizzy bass and drums that busily lead nowhere..." According to The New York Times writer Joy Press, Army of Me' is so menacing and inorganic-sounding it verges on industrial rock", and in a review, Pulse! defined the song "a staggering juggernaut of a track". While reviewing Post, Andy Smith of The Providence Journal stated that "Post is an eclectic affair, opening with the assertive industrial clang of 'Army of Me. Andy Beevers from the RM Dance Update noted that the song "is built around a downtempo beat and a dirty great throbbing synth line with the unmistakable and defiant vocals soaring above." Gavin Reeve from Smash Hits named it one of two "top destinations" of the album, with 'It's Oh So Quiet'.
In 1995, 'Army of Me' won an Icelandic Music Award for Song of the Year. The song was also ranked number 316 in Blender magazine's "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born". In 2012, the song was ranked number 71 in Consequence of Sounds "Top 100 Songs Ever".
Music video
Background
For the music video of the song, Björk collaborated again with French film director Michel Gondry, who had previously directed the video for "Human Behaviour" in 1993. In the video, Björk is the driver of a tanker truck. The singer "said that she wanted to capture that 'tanker-truck' feeling, the sense of a big machine grinding unstoppably through town" and further stated: "I thought I should be driving a very, very big truck to try to wake this person who's asleep, so I get the biggest truck in the world, and I'm so mad I've got metallic teeth, because when you're really angry, you grind your teeth. So I have to go to the dentist, who tries to steal away from me a diamond I don't know I have."The dentist is actually a gorilla, and Björk explained:
Björk and her label declined to use footage from the film Tank Girl in the music video for "Army of Me".
Synopsis
The first seconds of the music video show a young man in cryonic slumber. It then cuts to Björk, wearing a black karate gi, driving a large vehicle through a city. The passers-by seem to ignore the mass of the vehicle. The vehicle begins to sputter and slow, prompting Björk to check the motor. Before floating off the vehicle, she turns to the camera and shows metallic teeth. The vehicle's engine assembly consists of a mouth in which all of the teeth appear rotten, comically exaggerated by a shaggy-looking man engulfed in a stench-cloud crawling out of the mouth and offending passers-by.Björk touches her cheek, appearing to have a toothache, and proceeds to a nearby dentist's office. While she is going to the room of the dentist, her image appears reflected in a series of mirrors that make it impossible to distinguish her real self. She is examined by the dentist, an anthropomorphic gorilla, who discovers a diamond in her mouth. The dentist attempts to steal the diamond for himself, but Björk leaps onto his back and pummels him, and, retrieving the diamond, escapes the office. She takes the diamond back to her vehicle, all the while it multiplies in size until she is barely able to carry it. Björk tosses the diamond into the vehicle's mouth, apparently correcting its earlier affliction.
She then drives to a museum and proceeds inside, carrying a satchel containing a bomb. Sneaking past the museum's guards, she places the bomb on one of the exhibits – the young man seen in the beginning of the video lying on an altar in a deep sleep. She then bolts toward the museum's exit, concerning the guards and other patrons. She makes it out of the building just moments before the bomb explodes. After the explosion, she re-enters the building to find the man from the altar, who appears to have been just wakened by the blast. Björk hugs him, crying teardrops of jewels.